14 Responses

1. Mithaniel Marr

   November 19th, 2009 at 10:58 am

   1

   Many have said wrong then, because all of the founders were religious and highly influenced by Judeo-Christian values.
   If the country was founded by Muslims, we’d be a third world country under shria law, and probably have lost all major wars and and under Nazi occupation. That is if the native americans didn’t wipe us out first.
   If the country was founded by Wiccans, we would have lacked the military might to defend ourselves against Native American tribes therefor would not exist. Tree hugging is not an effective military tactic
   If the country was founded by Buddhists we would probably still be only 13 states and passively avoided all conflict over the years.

2. donfletc

   November 19th, 2009 at 3:39 pm

   2

   What is not evident from your question is what the mix of population today would be. But this is a question independent of the premise that founders might have been Muslim, Buddhists, or Wicans. See, while some significant leadership individuals were in fact not Christians, a very significant minority or possibly a majority of Americans of that time would have been Christian. We might reasonably guess but not know that a lot of the offspring over the generations since may have remained Christian.
   We would expect that if Wiccans or Buddhists had been influential in those times the constitution might have been written with more protection for Native rights, more care for teaching of the thinking of all religions and philosophies in schools. This might have resulted in a society more open to other religions and philosophies.
   If a Muslim minority had had the kind of influence at the time to become founding fathers, in a majority Christian community, we would have to assume that they would have had to be doing something right to gain that kind of influence. Let us have no illusion that Muslims could never have that kind of influence while a minority. In the city nearest to me we have a Muslim who has been elected to our provincial Parliament, not because he is Muslim but because people know and respect his wisdom.
   We have not seen any evidence that he would wish to impose his religion on the rest of our society. So I would guess that a Muslim minority having the respect of a Christian majority, such that they were leading society, would have been a non-disruptive community.
   Now we have to recall that many of the views of many Muslims disparaged today were very much in line with the thinking of most Christians at the time of the American Revolution. Do we imagine that Christians of 1800 held a view that women should be accorded the same rights as men? Well, no. In fact back then intelligent Muslims well informed of their faith were just a bit ahead of the Christian point of view regarding women. Even though it had been a hard sell to men, and mostly men within Islam would prefer to ignore the law of the Koran in this, the Koran specifies that the courts of Islam must, wherever possible, grant equal rights to women and men.
   Legal precedent in Islam had developed that presumed to conclude that there were an infinite number of ways equality could not be maintained. But any intelligent person could see that these were unnecessary conclusions.
   We can not really anticipate how a small group of well respected Muslims might have influenced a much larger Christian and irreligious people in America, any more than we can anticipate how a few Muslims elected to congress today might influence American society in the future.

3. amleth

   November 19th, 2009 at 10:07 pm

   3

   Maybe like the Phillipines,
   already taken over by the British Empire or French Empire,maybe even by Australians or other english speaking country,Canada or even Mexico perhaps.
   If eventually they could have the survived the northeastern indian confederations,or the winters and habitats they had no stamina for,they would never have come with the idea of a Democracy or Republic,that is the legacy in the Western european countries carried by italian states and the Swiss confederation and the revivals of classic history during the Renaissance and Enlightment;but Islam wiped out Byzantine greek-roman Culture in eastern mediterranean to have any legacy where to hold and take from,and though they took other sciences,not the social structures and policies.
   Too hard for private business minded individualist camel herder-traders and harem mongers to digest w/o puking?
   They did their expansion already in the first fanatic centuries of islam spread -through Jihad/crusades?- and they scored too good among unsuspecting neighbors.But on european civilized peoples didn’t work too long, they were repulsed at the Iberian and Balkan peninsulas.A few pockets of Islamists still remain over Albania and Bulgaria and with time none,as it happened over Granada.

4. Croaker

   November 20th, 2009 at 4:41 am

   4

   The US had it’s revolution over economic rights…
   We were founded on the ideas of John Locke and Liberalism….that evolved out of the ideas of individual freedom. Muslims don’t have that yet…they have not become secular. They have not escaped religious law. Buddhism would be more compatible with democracy as they tend to accept all religions and are more about how you do as an individual… Wiccan…I don’t know.
   I do know that Islam needs its own form of a Reformation.

5. The Sheriff is a-near!

   November 20th, 2009 at 7:54 am

   5

   Mostly ashes by now; after winning both world wars because of lack of American involvement as we would not have even ben industrialized by then not to mention that the Mullahs would have supported Hitler’s anti-Semitism, the Germans would have seen the Muslim States of America as an evnetual threat and nuked us.

6. Me-owww

   November 20th, 2009 at 11:03 am

   6

   if muslims had founded it, women woudl be beat for talking to any man who is not her realtive, women would be sentenced to death for being raped. Men woudl control everything and women would control nothing. We would eat lots of curry (yummy) and you would be forced to pray 5 times a day.

7. DSatt57

   November 20th, 2009 at 4:04 pm

   7

   But some were religious and realized from the past that one can not legislate religion, it is a thing from the heart.
   So, if the same men would have been of another faith, I would dare say it would be the same.
   I do think we are lucky to have had wise men who framed our Constitution.

8. tracymae

   November 20th, 2009 at 10:03 pm

   8

   The females of this country, would be lacking in presence for most of the elected and elevated positions. They would not have much status.

9. geoweeg

   November 20th, 2009 at 11:34 pm

   9

   we would be just another third world country with a mega-wealthy ruling class and everyone else deep in poverty…just like everyplace that Islam is dominant.

10. Free WP Autoposter Plugins

    November 21st, 2009 at 12:43 am

    10

    Odd question,
    When people profess to be Christians , are they? “The widows mite” “The good Samaritan”
    We all need to stop and think before we spew out HATE MONGERING!

11. I Might Be Showing Her My O Face

    November 21st, 2009 at 4:56 am

    11

    We would be bailing out deadbeats who had their caves foreclosed instead of their houses.

12. mohammed b

    November 21st, 2009 at 9:59 am

    12

    we would have a more peaceful world

13. Good Guinness To You!

    November 21st, 2009 at 11:29 am

    13

    Well we would probably stone people. Behead someone in the name of honor and so on.

14. 80's Girl

    November 21st, 2009 at 3:41 pm

    14

    WE WOULD HAVE NOT HAD AN “AMERICA”